Run
by repmetsyrrah
Summary: It had been two nights since she had last seen him. Almost three days. S/B speculation fic based on the 3x04 teaser trailer.


**A/N: **Based on the teaser for episode 3x04. No beta, all mistakes my own.

**Run**

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_Looking_

Sybil replayed the conversation in her head over and over as she packed her bag.

_"We're looking for Tom Branson."_

_looking_

They didn't have him, they were _looking_ for him which meant they hadn't _found_ him.

Which meant he wasn't in prison.

Which meant there was a chance she would see him again.

It had been two nights since she had last seen him. Almost three days.

The first night she had been worried but tried to keep it under control. There were many reasons, she had assured herself, many reasons for him not to have come home that didn't involve him lying dead in a gutter or locked away, tortured and beaten and starved in a prison.

Maybe he'd gone to cover a rally that got out of hand and he was staying with a friend until everything calmed down. Or maybe he'd had one too many after work and was sleeping it off on someone's couch.

The second night had been almost unbearable.

Her mother-in-law had stopped by to try and offer her comfort but Sybil didn't want to be lied to. Something was wrong and she knew it.

Then that day, after a sleepless night, there had been a knock at the door. The all too familiar khaki uniforms almost causing her to break down right there and then, imagining the sort of news they were there to bring her, before the first words they spoke had flooded her with relief.

_"We're looking for Tom Branson."_

She had told them she was his wife and hadn't seen him for two nights and, whether it was her accent, her clearly visible pregnancy or they just believed her, they had left almost as quickly as they had arrived.

And Sybil had set about immediately packing to go back to England. She knew without needing to wonder for even a moment that if Tom truly had dodged them he would be doing everything in his power to get to Downton Abbey.

He'd promised.

_"If something happened, you'd go to Downton, won't you?" He'd asked her out of the blue one morning, as they'd enjoyed a rare opportunity to lie in together. "I mean, I know my family would take care of you but it would be safer for you, both of you," he added, placing a hand on the swell of her stomach, "if you were to go back to Downton."_

_She didn't need to ask what the 'something' that might happen could be. They'd talked about it enough when he'd come home late with bruises on his face or Sybil had tended to the children of women who had nowhere to go but the free clinic she volunteered at two nights a week because their husbands had been dragged off by the Tans and never seen again._

_"Only if you promise the same," she told him, resting her head on his chest and trying not to think of a time she'd be so desperate as to go running back to her old life._

_Tom laughed. "I'd rather try my chances here."_

_"No," Sybil surprised herself with the force with which the word came out. Tom's face was just as serious as hers when she looked up to meet his eyes._

_"I mean it," she told him softly, but no less firmly, "if anything happens, if it's bad, if they might lock you away and…" and he might be beaten- or worse- and she might never see him again. "Even…" again she couldn't say the words but they both knew. "Go to Downton, and I'll meet you there."_

_He nodded._

_"Promise it." She didn't take her eyes off his. "Swear you won't do that to me, swear that if you can, if the time does come that you can be brave enough to run away."_

_"I swear," he told her, holding her gaze for a moment before sealing it with a kiss. _

She clicked the bag shut and smoothed her dress over her growing bump. She prayed that her family would help him, that they'd understand why he'd arrived alone and keep him safe.

She prayed she was right, and he would be waiting for her and wasn't already rotting in a sunless cell somewhere in Dublin.

She prayed he was doing as he promised. That he had enough in him to swallow his pride and flee.

He was so full of fight, so passionate about standing up for what he believed in, what he wrote. It wasn't like him to run away, especially not running from the home he loved so much into a house that represented the very thing he fought against…

_I swear_

His voice came back into her mind, the words cutting through her thoughts as clear as the day he'd first said them and Sybil nodded to herself. Yes, he'd promised, he'd _sworn_ to her he would find his way to Downton and she would not doubt him.

She switched off the lights and pulled the door shut, locking it quietly and trying to shake the feeling she may never return.

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